There are various statistics from several sources about the viral nature of an unhappy customer’s complaint. Notice how true it is that satisfied customers tell just a few, whereas unhappy customers tell several? Ninety per cent of customers don’t complain, but 91 per cent will simply leave; for every customer, there are 26 unhappy customers, and so on. And this column, reflecting an experience we had over the past weekend, is probably proof of that.

We had gone to a self-service fast food place for dinner. The food is served in paper boxes and plates are handed out once we go up to the eating area on the first floor. Our plates did not arrive. I started tucking in but my dinner companion waited.

After about 10 minutes, he went down and complained.

A staff member came up with two plates, smiled at us - and deposited them at someone else's table. He then ambled away.

The diners at the next table, a group of three young girls and two older adults, gave up waiting, spread their paper napkins on the table and started eating. My companion went down again and yelled a little. A few minutes later, another staff member came up with more paper boxes, asked us to use those as plates, apologised for keeping us waiting and explained that the housekeeping lady had failed to turn up to wash the plates. By now, the food had cooled down – reheating it and reserving it took another five minutes.

The lure of a sad story Wisely, perhaps, they didn't give us a feedback form, and we are not going to bother with providing any on the Internet.

I am acting like the majority of other displeased customers who will not lodge a formal complaint but go out and tell anyone who will listen (and they will, mind you, fellow customers love a good bad service story) about how the promise of a finger-licking experience can turn into a teeth-gnashing episode. In this case, the staff was apologetic, this episode was a one-off and we were not really traumatised so I may go back there eventually but as the research shows, I am going to tell others about it.

How can the restaurant have avoided this unpleasant episode? They could have arranged to serve us in paper plates. This is much more comfortable than trying to eat out of paper boxes or on paper napkins. It would not have cut deeply into the outlet's budget and I am sure the manager is authorised to make such decisions.

Doing it right I have, however, abandoned restaurants whose staff was rude to me.

On another occasion, we had visited a restaurant that advertised wattalappan , a Sri Lankan dessert, and called ahead to ensure it was available.

'We asked again before we ordered and were told it was, with a reassuring and indulgent smile.

Finally, when it was time for dessert, they announced it was not there.

They did not offer to make amends. The main course had been expensive. Angered, we left without paying the service charge. We're truly sorry, they then said. “If you are truly sorry, you will home-deliver the dessert tomorrow,” said the person in our group who was really keen on the delicacy, giving them his name and address.

They did not, of course. We have never gone back. And we revel in telling the story to whoever will lend us an ear. So do others. Remember United Breaks Guitars ? It has amassed over 14 million views on YouTube as of today. There are other examples – of two Dominos Pizza staffers who contaminated some food and themselves put it up on YouTube, the Comcast technician who fell asleep on the client’s couch … There is the Marks & Spencer episode, though, where a customer overcharged for a sandwich complained and asked for the picture of a dinosaur to make up for the inconvenience– and it was delivered, with apologies and good humour all round.

There is another statistic that says it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for a single negative one. I suppose that would be the case with a long-term service provider or an appliance company, where one is stuck with the product, but I shudder to think of 12 occasions to complain!

Vitamin C is a weekly dose of consumer empowerment

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